The Welsummer Thread!!!!

[pinkchick]

Robin~ Those fluffy feathers have a name and I can't remember for sure off the top of my head, but it's something like barbules, don't quote me on that one, but I will find out for sure. I was reading some information on why they fluff and I think I remember reading it in literature about the pineal gland (preening gland) and the feathers that surround it. When I have a little more time I can try and find that info for you.

 

[EweSheep]

Is the fluff part a dominant trait? If you have a very exceptional roo with that kind of fault, would you use him anyway and hope to get his sons not to have any or very little at all?

I don't see that too much in the hens so they pretty much are excluded.

Royce, do ask your friend judge and see what his input is. I know Walt is pretty good mentioning about it and I value his experience very much. We are all learning about the quirks of Welsummers that probably our original founders haven't thought of nick picking or some weird throwbacks we got in our stock.

All of them should be mentioned and I would certainly add it to the website to advise our members what is allowed, what is somewhat acceptable (if you are going to work on culling it) or a downright no no in the breed standard.

Great job guys!

 

[pinkchick]

Robin~

The fluff does breed forward. Snowbird will be of great assistance with an explanation for this. We have had many discussion of fluff in the Marans threads and Don has been extremely helpful. I don't believe it is the fluff that is the issue....I agree with Walt about it being the tail coverts that are actually the problem and aren't right, if they were correct the fluff would be covered as it should be.

 

[snowbird]

Quote:
Kim, The white fluff is actually part of the tail covert. It is my belief that it is connected to the white undercolor and the white in wing and tail. Next time you have a Male with this white fluff in any breed catch him up and look at the tail covert and you will see that the white is just coming up the covert further than is required. If it was the proper color would not make a difference in how the tail looks. I have worked with this in several breeds and the only way to eliminate it is do not use these cottontail males, better to cull and move on to better things. My suggestion is to start keeping a closer eye on the undercolor on the males.

 

[fowlman01]

Quote:
Kim, The white fluff is actually part of the tail covert. It is my belief that it is connected to the white undercolor and the white in wing and tail. Next time you have a Male with this white fluff in any breed catch him up and look at the tail covert and you will see that the white is just coming up the covert further than is required. If it was the proper color would not make a difference in how the tail looks. I have worked with this in several breeds and the only way to eliminate it is do not use these cottontail males, better to cull and move on to better things. My suggestion is to start keeping a closer eye on the undercolor on the males.

You are correct Don, and you are probably the fluff expert on this board. This is a problem in several breeds and everyone except you and I think that it is some mysterious cotton ball that lurks under the feathers, but it really is the tail coverts.

Walt

 

[Happy Chooks]

With a rooster that has minor tail fluff, how do you go about breeding it out?

 

[snowbird]

Quote:
The only way to breed out the white in the tail covert is do not breed any males that have the white in the tail covert and we must consider the color of the undercolor in the mix also. The hen has something to do with this also but do not want to give more than you can absorb to start off with.

If the male already has white fluff he should not be bred regardless of how much he has.

 

[Happy Chooks]

Quote:
The only way to breed out the white in the tail covert is do not breed any males that have the white in the tail covert and we must consider the color of the undercolor in the mix also. The hen has something to do with this also but do not want to give more than you can absorb to start off with.

If the male already has white fluff he should not be bred regardless of how much he has.

Not white, but gray. My rooster has a small amount of gray fluff. Sometimes it shows and sometimes it doesn't. What do I look for in the hen to reduce/remove it?

I also am working with barnevelders and I got eggs from 3 different breeders (top lines). Every rooster I hatched had some degree of gray fluff. (and I hatched a lot of roosters) One had so much he looked like a bunny. (not a joke and he got culled) They are only 30 weeks, so they haven't filled in completely yet.

Don't worry about giving me too much - as long as you don't give me the genetic breakdown (E/e+ e+/E stuff), I'm good.

I want to learn as much as I can.

 

[Tailfeathers]

Quote:
I got an email today. Since I didn't get his permission to quote him, I'll just paste what he said: "Fluff by tail is bad. If it is a different color than the surface color it’s worse. It is one of the things a judge sees every time he/she looks at your bird so probably costs you more than it should. A minor fault on the surface is usually more of a problem than a more major fault underneath."

Now, I'm heading out in a few minutes to make my rounds. Guess I'll spend a little time looking over my boys today. I'm pretty sure one of my Wellies has some fluff. I just hope it's not the one I had marked as my top bird. I've got three boys that I've kept. The main thing I've been working on is leg color and two of them have great color. Nice, deep, ochre. The other boy is a bit on the smaller side and doesn't have as good of leg color. The top bird has a great chest, nice size, great tail carriage, good eye color, really nice hackles, saddles, primaries, etc. Unfortunately I won't be able to show him because somebody took a nice bite out of his comb and completely removed the middle point out of his five points!

My #2 pick is pretty nice but he doesn't have as nice a comb and his wattles are a bit larger than I prefer. I may be able to show him but haven't decided yet. Either one though should help him my improving leg color and skin color.

I really neglected my Barnies and Wellies this year. I did well from what I got 2 years ago and really did well with my Barnies. So I focused on the Barnies, Buckeyes, and most recently my Ameraucanas this year. I may drop my Buckeyes, not sure yet, but I am certain that my Wellies are going to get lots of attention this coming year. I can usually only work with two breeds at a time so this coming year I think it's going to be Ameraucanas and Welsummers.

God Bless,

 

[Tailfeathers]

Quote:
That's interesting HC. I hatched out a ton of Barnie eggs this year and got a bunch of males. I think I still got 6 out there and I don't remember seeing any fluff on them. In fact, I can't recall seeing any fluff in my Barnies for several years. I think I may have had some in the past but I can't even say that for sure. That is interesting. I wonder how closely our lines are.

Ah, but I shouldn't derail the thread. You can email me if you'd like and we can chat about this. I should go look at the Barnie site too now...

God Bless,